A mother was so desperate to help her deeply disturbed daughter, she hired a medium to exercise the “demon” out of her. Weeks later, she was stabbed more than a hundred times before being decapitated by her own child.
As the years went by, 57-year-old Rita Camilleri became increasingly concerned for her daughter. The dedicated mother took then-25-year-old Jessica Camilleri to medical appointments, and doctors diagnosed the girl with numerous psychological illnesses as well as autism and a mental deficiency. Jessica’s behavior continued to worsen, leading to threats of violence, psychotic outbursts, and neurotic behavior.
Still, Rita was determined to care for her daughter, which is why the desperate mother turned to a spiritual medium as the last resort, News.com.au reports. She paid the “spirit communicator” a down payment of $2,500 but never received any service, a family friend told investigators. Just weeks later, a truly nightmarish event would unfold.
Authorities were called to a gruesome scene, discovering Rita’s severed head on a sidewalk in front of a neighbors house. The loving mother’s dismembered remains were found strewn about the house. According to experts, she had been stabbed at least 100 times.
“On the tiled floor was the body of the deceased, head decapitated, six knives broken and intact surrounding the deceased,” Sen. Con Bennett said in a statement read to the court. “To the right was a human tongue, further to right under the fridge was a piece of skin I believed to be a human nose. The head … had numerous jagged and penetrating wounds exposing the cervical spine. Human eyeballs were on the tiles under the deceased’s neck.”
The whole scene looked like something out of a horror movie, which made sense after investigators heard about Jessica’s obsession with gory films. The movies depict sequences of butchery and decapitation akin to what was found at the crime scene.
“I was so agitated, I lost it. I was stabbing her…I was so angry,” she said. “I think I had sick thoughts. I got it off horror movies… Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jeepers Creepers and Saw. I remember stabbing my mum, I wouldn’t stop, was getting her everywhere. I was getting the adrenaline going.”
Bizarrely, Jessica was calm and content as the police questioned her. She confessed to murdering her mother, admitting, “I kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her. I took off her head.” She then asked if she would “get the death penalty” and was relieved to hear that the country recognizes no such sentence. She also asked detectives if her mother was really dead and if her head could be sewn back on, ABC reports.
“Can I ask, is my mum dead?” Jessica asked. “Don’t think I’m insane, but you can’t bring her back to life?”
Jessica said she knows “doctors can do miracles”
“That’s a bit of a stretch,” an officer replied.
“Is anything going to happen to me … do I get the death penalty?” Jessica asked at one stage.
“We don’t do the death penalty in Australia,” an officer said.
“OK, so I’ve got nothing to worry about,” Jessica replied.
Jessica told police, “I’ve got a mental illness.” She then admitted to carrying her mother’s severed head down the street because she was “taking it to show my neighbor.”
Jessica pleaded not guilty to murder. She claimed that she stabbed her mother 100 times and beheaded her in self-defense. She maintains that her mother was abusive. She later admitted that she was angry because she believed her mother would take her back to a mental institution.
“She said, ‘I want you out of my life.’ She said, ‘I deserve to have a free and happy life,'” Jessica said in the video, which was played in court. “She wanted to kill me. I don’t know what her intentions were … she was so frustrated and confused. I was so angry — in a fit of rage, like I’ve never been before.”
The court heard that Jessica was prescribed medications to ease her psychological illnesses but that she would intentionally vomit them up. Her mother had allegedly told a neighbor that she felt “let down” by doctors and support services but that she wasn’t going to give up on her daughter.
Jessica and her defense team argued that she wasn’t responsible for her mother’s death on the ground of mental insanity. They also claimed that she is mentally unfit for jail.
There is no case in which stabbing someone 100 times and decapitating them is considered self-defense. However, Jessica may convince the court that her mental illness means that she is not responsible for her actions. Disturbingly, it doesn’t appear that any sentence will provide her mother and surviving loved ones with justice.
